


Blown Away

by unknowableroom_archivist



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Marauders' Era, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2005-10-31
Updated: 2005-10-31
Packaged: 2019-01-19 13:57:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 731
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12411633
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unknowableroom_archivist/pseuds/unknowableroom_archivist
Summary: July Scrivenshaft Challenge entry. Remus ponders life in general, how their small group, who swore to stick together forever slowly broke up and wonders who'll leave next.





	Blown Away

**Author's Note:**

> Note from ChristyCorr, the archivist: this story was originally archived at [Unknowable Room](http://fanlore.org/wiki/Unknowable_Room), a Harry Potter archive active from 2005-2016. To preserve the archive, I began manually importing its works to the AO3 as an Open Doors-approved project after May 2017. I e-mailed all creators about the move and posted announcements, but may not have reached everyone. If you are (or know) this creator, please contact me using the e-mail address on [Unknowable Room collection profile](http://www.archiveofourown.org/collections/unknowableroom).

Disclaimer: Same as always. I DON'T OWN IT. 

This was actually entered for the July Scrivenshaft challenge. =)

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_The winds that blow - ask them, which leaf on the tree will be next to go._

__

Remus Lupin sat on one of the benches in a deserted park, in an isolated area of England. Autumn was upon the country, its blazing leaves a beacon in the fading daylight. Leaves from the towering maples slowly drifted down onto the ground, falling softly as they hit the damp grass. Beneath his feet, a carpet of browns, yellows, oranges and reds lay, and he wondered if no two leaves, like snowflakes, were the same. Melancholically, he recalled who had first told him that.

 

“Remus,”� Peter said randomly on a walk around Hogwarts grounds one December day, “Did you know that no two snowflakes are alike?”� Remus had just shaken his head.

__

Remus, Peter, Sirius and James; Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs. Their names had once belonged together, been together. They would’ve done anything for one another. They were the best of friends, closer than they appeared. They knew each other’s weaknesses, and through that, grew stronger. Life was beautiful to them at Hogwarts and they did not have a care in the world. 

 

And now there were only two Marauders left. ‘ _How ironic,’_ Remus thought. _‘That Peter and I are the two surviving ones, he’s the one who ruined it all — wrecked our friendship, helped kill Lily and James, yet it is through him that I am a part of this thought.’_ Who would be the next to die? Remus had no doubt in his mind that by the end of the war only one Marauder would remain. But would it be him … or Peter?

 

He knew that he was the one who deserved to live. Peter had always been easily influenced, especially as he got older and his father and grandfather — who supported the dark side — became more and more unbearable, until he finally succumbed and turned his life around forever. It was strange; Peter was often intimidated and timid in school and yet he held the power to change the lives of countless people. And no matter which way you look at it, it was never for the better.

 

Remus thought it unjust that Peter, the one who had taken the life away from two of his best friends, had the chance of living when he should be dead. Peter should be dead instead of James or Sirius. He was living while they, two of the smartest, most loyal people Remus ever knew, were dead. But they died for a cause and Remus knew this was how they would’ve wanted to die: for what they believed in and protecting those they loved.

 

They would’ve died for each other. They trusted one another with their lives. Lily and James wrongly trusted Peter, and Remus wasn’t sure if he could trust anyone again. If he couldn’t have trusted one of his best mates, who _could_ he trust? ' _But,'_ he reflected. ' _Peter may not have had anything about me to tell Voldemort … he had to turn on Lily and James because of Harry…'_

 

Remus watched as more leaves drifted down to the ground, their path decided by the slight breeze that blew through the trees, wrapping its cool hands around the bark. One leaf fell from a particular maple and another followed soon after. He wondered what determined which leaf would fall first, because, he thought, this was a lot like him and Peter. Which one of them would fall first?

 

Would it be Peter, with his loyalty to the Dark Lord, his squeaky laugh, his insecurity, or would it be Remus, who had stayed loyal to his friends as long as he possibly could and fought for their friendship after they had died?

 

Watching the leaves fall, he knew it mattered not who deserved death; or life more. He knew that when it came down to life or death, when one was about to fall, their accomplishments and mistakes from the past didn’t matter. Death wasn’t fussy; He took whoever knocked on his front door. And whether that would be him or Peter, Remus didn’t know.

 

Sighing, he got up from the bench and started walking out of the park. He couldn’t control his fate any more than the leaves could control the turn of the season.


End file.
